During the first quarter of 2023, SK Telecom added nearly 530,000 5G subscribers

SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest telecom operator, ended the first quarter of the year with a total of 15.93 million subscribers in the 5G segment, up 12.6% from 14.14 million in the same period the previous year, the operator said in its earnings statement.

During the first quarter of 2023, the Asian carrier added nearly 530,000 5G subscribers. At the end of March, SK Telecom’s 5G subscribers accounted for 70% of its overall handset subscribers, up from 61% at the end of March 2023.

The number of LTE subscriber reached 6.9 million at end-March, down 56.1% year-on-year.

The Korean carrier ended Q1 with a total of 34.10 million mobile subscribers, up 3.3% year-on-year.

Mobile service revenue in the first quarter was almost flat at KRW2.65 trillion ($1.9 billion), with ARPU falling 2.9% to KRW29,239.

In Q1, SK Telecom’s net profit increased by 19.6% year-on-year to KRW362 billion, while its revenue rose 2.3% year-on-year to KRW4.47 trillion.

The telco’s capex in Q1 reached KRW317 billion, surging 50% year-on-year.

“Our new shareholder return policy reflects our commitment to return more to shareholders as our performance improves,” said Kim Yang-seob, CFO of SK Telecom. “We will continue to increase corporate value by solidifying our mobile and fixed telecommunications business, improving profitability and efficiency, and creating tangible results in the AI business.”

In September 2023, SK Telecom announced its vision to become a global AI company and unveiled the AI Pyramid Strategy, under which it will strengthen its own competitiveness to deepen customer relationships while working together with partners throughout the world. The AI Pyramid Strategy focuses on innovating industry, society, and life centered around three key areas including AI Infrastructure, AI Transformation (AIX) and AI Service.

“SK Telecom’s strategy is to accelerate the execution of its AI Pyramid Strategy and focus on creating concrete results in three key areas this year: AI Infrastructure, AI Transformation (AIX), and AI Service. In the AI Infrastructure area, which is the foundation of the AI business, the data center business recorded a 26% year-on-year revenue growth backed by continuous increase in utilization rate. SKT plans to evolve and develop its data center businessthe AI data center business, which is witnessing rapid growth in demand,” the telco said in its earnings statement.

Last year, South Korea’s ICT ministry canceled a license owned by SK Telecom which had been meant to support 5G services via 28 GHz spectrum, citing a lack of deployment investment by the operator.

SK Telecom had been given the right to use the 28 GHz band in 2018 and was required to install a total of 15,000 units of network equipment by May 2023. However, SK Telecom had only installed only 1,650 units of 28 GHz equipment and had no plans for further installations, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.